The dispassionate discipline of a logical mind is useful regardless, it is a skill taught in coding. And how do you think valid chart patterns come to be recognized? Thru statistical analysis. Should these patterns change an ability to search for new ones will prove invaluable.

The trend in this business is more automation. Anything you need to learn about economics you can pick up in a single class, anything you need to learn about finance you can pick up from Suzy Orman or a book on the subject. Any professional in any field will continue to stay educated on a variety of subjects over their life, so you can expect to read a lot over time.

All of that information is handy in it’s own way, to be sure, but what formal topic is your time best spent on in university in order to pursue some trading-related (non-analysis) field? Follow the trend… the trend is not to hire more ppl with an MBA or a masters in economics (or finance) for sure.

That was 30 years ago, and when those managers are replaced… what do you think the new ones will look for?

I have no doubt there will be more automation in the future.

I personally believe that humans can perceive many things that a computer cannot. Things like intuition, market sentiment, subconscious market understanding. A human can develop a certain ‘feel’ for the market and that can give him a better degree of flexibility than a more automated approach. Of course there are negatives to this approach as initially you have to deal with more emotions, lack of discipline, but I feel that I have the capacity to overcome them and develop the skill necessary to make my type of trading work. Those are some of my core beliefs about trading and they help to shape the type of trading methodology/system that will fit my personality.

I guess it just depends on what your goals are in life. Do you want to be working for another company? Or do you want to be a trading your own account?

If you want to be working for another company, then you may want to add programming to your skill set as you just mentioned above.

If you want to make it on your own, well then that gives you a bit more flexibility in what you want to study.